With Amazon (excellent and incredibly speedy service) sewing up so much of that online market.
As much as we complain about their ever tightening hold over us, and blatant tax avoidance.
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[News] Death on the High Street,Boots.
- Thread starter Leekbrookgull
- Start date
With Amazon (excellent and incredibly speedy service) sewing up so much of that online market.
As much as we complain about their ever tightening hold over us, and blatant tax avoidance.
Cowfold Seagull
Fan of the 17 bus
I used to love the WHSmith of the 1970's & 80's. An example of a very professional and well run business. How times have changed though, what we are left with now is a very poor imitation. So sad to see.
AmexRuislip
Trainee Spy 🕵️♂️
Intu took over the running of Watfords main shopping centre, as well as household names flooding in, the original high street has had a major refurb, amazing really in todays climes.
High Streets evolve, even before internet shopping, the make up of shops in 1965 Brighton was very different to 2000 Brighton.
A personal view, I think rents and retail business rates will need to fall.
Then there’s transport. Cities such as Oxford, Cambridge and Liverpool have excellent and cheap access by park n ride etc. Brighton has the perennial problem of no space for park n ride apparently, high bus fares for a family and huge traffic jams at weekends.
Knocky's Nose
Mon nez est en Valenciennes..
As human beings it's in our nature to want more for less. If someone can give you something cheaper than anyone else, then deliver it to your front door for nothing, it dings all the little bells in your little Homo Sapien brain...
It's a fact. A sad fact, perhaps - but a fact nonetheless, that it's all a race to the bottom on price and a race to the top on service. Whoever can do that, wins. How do you win? Economy of scale, and the lowest overheads possible. Enter Amazon... who have nailed both.
Our quaint old ways of shopping in the 70's, 80's and 90's were there because there was no alternative. Personally, I loved them - but they're history now.
Town Centre rent and rates need to fall in order to make trading there worthwhile, and the only businesses who can afford to trade there are the huge profit margin ones (coffee, pasta, pizza, burgers, chicken etc - then the huge mark-up or high volume retailers like Sports Direct, JD, Top Shop and so on). Every town centre will be a replica of every town centre eventually.
It's a fact. A sad fact, perhaps - but a fact nonetheless, that it's all a race to the bottom on price and a race to the top on service. Whoever can do that, wins. How do you win? Economy of scale, and the lowest overheads possible. Enter Amazon... who have nailed both.
Our quaint old ways of shopping in the 70's, 80's and 90's were there because there was no alternative. Personally, I loved them - but they're history now.
Town Centre rent and rates need to fall in order to make trading there worthwhile, and the only businesses who can afford to trade there are the huge profit margin ones (coffee, pasta, pizza, burgers, chicken etc - then the huge mark-up or high volume retailers like Sports Direct, JD, Top Shop and so on). Every town centre will be a replica of every town centre eventually.
portslade seagull
Well-known member
Just comeback from France and what struck me was a full high st and plenty of shoppers. Also plenty of banks where here they close them down
Murray 17
Well-known member
- Jul 6, 2003
- 2,159
I thought it had gone underground! [emoji3]
thedonkeycentrehalf
Retired
- Jul 7, 2003
- 8,617
I was under the impression that WH Smith make most of their money from the transport sites (airports, railway stations, ports, etc) and also their wholesale arm. High street stores will be kept alive with the Post Office tie ins as we already have in many towns across Sussex.
Hu_Camus
New member
- Jan 27, 2019
- 502
It just churns. Some stores fall, others spring up.....when was the last time you bought some pick-n-mix at Woolies, or got yourself a nice Macintosh at C&A (although I bought a nice hat in the one in Lisbon recently)
Things change, and yet I'll miss them.
I moved to my small town 15 years ago. We had the four big banks and a building society. HSBC closed about five years ago, Nat West and Barclays have gone this year, and Lloyds is closing in August. Just the building society left. And cash machines in the Co-op and Tesco Express.
Yes. Faversham has had 5% of its high street shops boarded up for the last 15 years. Yet....yet....now, since quite recently, there are none. There are instead three new craft beer pubs, plus an Italian wine bar. There are strange and eclectic shops.....the high street has gone local and is vibrant. I didn't expect that. Coming soon to a place near you? We shall see.
Evolving back to specialists, whilst generalists like Debenhams and Boots struggle as ‘masters of none’.
Hampster Gull
New member
- Dec 22, 2010
- 13,462
WH Smiths and Boots have been appalling stores to visit for sooooo long. I feel dirty whenever I go in one of their stores. I hate WHS with a passion
Even when you desperately need a pencil case or geometry set?
You missed out the 3 betting shops and the tattooist.
Hampster Gull
New member
- Dec 22, 2010
- 13,462
Needs must
I would have thought WH Smiths in train stations, motorway service stations and airports are hugely profitable but much less so on the high street if they are to survive it's these high street shops that require work
Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
Newhaven hasn't had a bank for years. We can pay money in via the post office or go to Seaford.
[MENTION=578]portslade seagull[/MENTION] France still had small family run shops which is why their high streets thrive. They wouldn't dream of doing a one stop shop at the supermarket.
Yep they're doing really well. It's the US company they bought that is struggling.